Today for review I’ve a fully featured all-in-one printer from Canon, model number MP980 which was provided for review by our friends over at Geeks.com. This printer is one that can be used on your network via wired or wireless which is truly a nice feature to have in a printer either in your home or office. The MP980 is simple to use, it has a nice LCD panel on it for operation and even to show previews of copies and scans. So read on to learn a bit more about a decent printer..
Specifications:
Price: $139.99
The Canon PIXMA MP980 Wireless All-in-One printer has all the features you need for a home or small office color printer! The MP980 boasts advanced technology in the form of ChromaLife100+, a six color ink system that uses a unique gray ink that provides better color values and more accurate tones for color and monochrome photos and documents. Vibrant color or sharp text don’t take long for the MP980 to churn out, it can print a 4 x 6-inch color photo in 20 seconds!
General Features:
-Stylish All-in-One Photo Printer
-All-in-One Printer, Scanner, Copier, Photo Printer
-Canon FINE inkjet technology (Full-lithography inkjet Nozzle Engineering)
-ChromaLife100+ 6-color ink system
-Includes gray ink for better quality monochrome prints
-Maximum ink droplet size: 1 picoliter
-Prints 4 x 6 photos at 9600 x 2400 dpi² resolution in 20 seconds
-4800 dpi high resolution CCD scanner for documents and film
-White LED eliminates warm-up time for document scanning
-USB 2.0 interface
-IEEE 802.11b/g Wireless (WiFi certified) connectivity
-Ethernet connectivity
-3.5-inch color TFT LCD display
-Easy scroll wheel
-Digital Media Card Reader
-Auto Duplex Print
-PictBridge support
-Exif Print support
-Supports Bluetooth with optional adapter (not included)
-EnergyStar compliant
Printer Features:
-Print Speed (up to)
-Color Photo: 4 x 6-inch borderless photo: approximately 20 seconds
-Black: Up to 26 ppm (as fast as 2.3 seconds per page)
-Color: Up to 21 ppm (as fast as 2.9 seconds per page)
-Number of Nozzles: Black: 512; Color: 5,632; Total: 6,144
-Picoliter Size (color): Picoliter Size:1, 2 and 5
-Print Resolution (up to)
-Black: 600 x 600 dpi
-Color: 9600 x 2400 dpi
-Paper Sizes: Letter, Legal, 4 x 6, 5 x 7, 8 x 10-inches, U.S. #10 Envelopes
-Automatic Sheet Feeder: 150 Pages (Cassette:150 pages)
Dimensions:
-7.9 x 18.5 x 15.2-inches (H x W x D)
-Weight: 23.6 lbs.
Unboxing:
I was going to do a video unboxing, but printers this size can be unwieldy, so you’re spared this time..
The printer is packaged very well, there’s a lot of protective material that you’ll have to get through to get to the printer itself.
Inside along with the printer you’ll find six ink cartridges, two blacks, one gray, one yellow, one cyan and one magenta along with software/driver disc, USB cable, power cord and quite a bit of documentation and even some paper samples.
The printer itself is large and silver and black in color, it’s stylish looking.
On the front the output paper tray folds down, beneath that is a regular paper tray. When you first unpack the printer, when you open the front door you’ll find the ink Printhead in a sealed bag.
On the front of the printer, to the right side is a door and beneath the door is a USB port, but behind the door is the card reader.
On the back of the printer is another paper tray actually, so this printer has dual paper trays so you can hold a lot of paper.
On the top of the printer you’ll find a small panel that flips open to reveal the LCD display panel and the control panel beneath that.
The top panel where the LCD display is actually opens up as well to reveal the flatbed scanner.
Above the scanner is a white cover which actually opens to reveal the film negative scanning accessory.
Finally on the back of the printer you’ll find the power connation on the right side, along with the USB connection and an ethernet connection.
Installation, Performance, Comparison
Before you start the software/driver installation you’ll need to install the ink cartridges which involves installing the printhead and the cartridges of course. One great feature is that there’s LEDs in the printer that will light up to let you know that the cartridges are in correctly, after that it proceeds top clean the print head.
Ok, the installation process can be lengthy, but not as long as it estimates.
I was installing the printer on a wireless connection.
So I got to that point and ran into trouble:
After trying to reinstall several times, I did a bit of searching the web and then checking the Canon website where I found that I actually needed a different set of drivers since I was running Windows 7 64bit. It’s the 64bit that was the issue, had I been running 32bit I would not have had a problem.
Once I got through that everything was nice and smooth. The software actually tests your wireless connection:
When you’re done with the test, you’ll then find six new icons on your desktop and access to the control panel for the printer.
The LCD panel is very nice, it’s colorful and clear. The main menu rotates around and you select items by pressing OK.
You can check ink levels, manage settings, and even print pages like graph or lines paper.
Here’s the Settings:
We’ve got a bunch of options for printing like one for printing from a mobile phone.
Speaking of printing, it’s quiet and it prints fast.
The text print quality is very good and crisp and clear, here’s some examples including zoomed in on the text:
One thing I like about this printer is the fact that you can scan without using your computer, you can scan to either a USB drive or a memory card. Scanning is quick and on the LCD you’ll even get a preview.
And here’s the actual scan:
Copying is quick and easy, and you can change several settings along with seeing a preview:
Here’s the copy and the original, it was done on regular paper, so it’s not glossy like the original but the colors and detail are very good.
Overall it’s a decent printer.
Conclusion:
The Canon MP980 All-in-One is easy to use once you get it setup which can take many minutes to complete. The control panel on the top makes life easy, and the LCD is actually very nice looking.
The printer can be used via USB, ethernet over your network or even wirelessly. The setup is all fairly straight forward, but it can take a while to complete, and you’ll need to make sure you’ve got updated drivers etc especially if you’re running a 64bit operating system.
I can’t say about the ink capacity as I wasn’t going to waste paper and just keep printing stuff to see how much I could print.
The colors are very good for both pictures and regular prints, text is crisp and clean, overall the print quality is very good.
It prints fast and quiet, and scanning and copying are nice and fast as well.
I didn’t test the negative scanning feature as I have no clue where any negatives might be in my home, packed in a box somewhere I’m sure. I haven’t used a film camera for about 10 years now honestly.
Pros:
+Good quality copies and prints
+Nice looking LCD screen
+Fast scanning and copying
+Control panel is easy to use
+Seems well made
Cons:
-Slight installation issues
-Installation can be long and tedious
-Need to get new software for installation
Ratings
Overall: 4 out of 5
Performance: 5 out of 5
Aesthetic: 5 out of 5
Build Quality: 5 out of 5
Disclosure: http://www.bonafidereviews.com/disclosure-policy/
